An erosion of trust

By Fannie Flono / The Charlotte Observer

Published: Monday, May 13, 2013 at 09:27 AM.

And President Obama seems to get the seriousness too. This week, he encouraged victims to report the crimes, noting that as commander-in-chief, he’s “got their backs.” Perpetrators will be “held accountable,” he said. “Prosecuted, stripped out of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period. It’s not acceptable.”

It is unacceptable. It’s also a vicious crime. When military leaders turn a blind eye to these criminals, they aid and abet the crime. Those who serve this country deserve better. They’ve earned and deserve a trusted friend.

As a girl of 16, I left a party with a friend — a male friend — who agreed to drop me off at my house to meet my midnight curfew. My house was only a few blocks away, and I trusted him to get me there safely. But as I got in the car, a couple of his male friends got in too. And when he drove off, it was not in the direction of my house.

Soon talk turned to them having a little fun with me — and the friend I trusted became someone I didn’t know, someone ready to betray my trust. I was lucky. My belligerent response that what they were contemplating was a crime, that I would press charges against every single one, and that my squeaky clean reputation would make me more believable than them in court, scared them enough that they changed course and dropped me at my door.

I thought about that incident when I read the new report about sexual assaults in the military. The women — and men — who’ve been the victims of sex crimes in the military must feel a lot like I did — abandoned by a trusted friend when they needed them the most. In their case, that friend is the military itself. It’s the system of military justice, if in these cases it can be called that, and those who purport to lead our armed forces.

Consider these troubling statistics from a Pentagon report last week of a Department of Defense survey of military men and women about sexual assaults:

■ Military sexual assaults jumped to 26,000 last year, up 7,000 since 2010. That’s more than a third higher.

■ Just 3,374 sex crimes were actually reported. That’s a little more than 1 in 10.

■ Of those, only 2,610 were completely investigated — and then just 594 recommended for court-martial, 302 of which went to trial and 238 got convictions.

It’s shouldn’t be surprising that so few sex assaults actually get reported. Sixty-two percent of those who’ve stepped forward became victims of retaliation. For more than a quarter, an allegation of rape has resulted in rank reduction, pay decrease and administrative discharge. One woman who filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, former Marine Pvt. Stephanie Schroeder, said she was forced to work alongside her attacker for a year after she charged he raped her.

The Pentagon report said about 1 in 4 of those who were assaulted and received medical care declined to press charges, an indicator of the victims’ fear of retribution, military officials noted.

As disconcerting for those who’ve been victims is the way military leaders have been addressing this issue. Sexual assault is hardly ever talked about and portrayed as what it is — a crime, a serious and often violent one, where perpetrators will be pursued aggressively and the punishment will be stiff. Instead, it is often alluded to as a misunderstanding.

A recent video from one North Carolina base had military commanders also giving this advice, among other things, for preventing assaults: “Real women intervene before their friends do something stupid.”

Couple all that with the recent arrest of the head of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention unit for sexual assault and victims can’t help but wonder how serious military leaders are about tackling military sexual assaults.

Thankfully, a lot of women in Congress including Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., do get the seriousness of this matter. All have crafted or are involved in crafting legislation to protect victims and assist in the prosecution of perpetrators. Boxer’s and Gillibrand’s bill would take away the authority of military commanders to set aside convictions or change guilty ones. It would also add independent prosecutors to decide whether a case goes to a court-martial in the first place. Those are wise moves given the penchant of far too many chain-of-command officers to sideline these cases or shamefully throw out jury verdicts.

And President Obama seems to get the seriousness too. This week, he encouraged victims to report the crimes, noting that as commander-in-chief, he’s “got their backs.” Perpetrators will be “held accountable,” he said. “Prosecuted, stripped out of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period. It’s not acceptable.”

It is unacceptable. It’s also a vicious crime. When military leaders turn a blind eye to these criminals, they aid and abet the crime. Those who serve this country deserve better. They’ve earned and deserve a trusted friend.